


An Ocean, An Island

by Lokei



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Drabble Sequence, Gen, Prophetic Dreams, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 06:18:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5486732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lokei/pseuds/Lokei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey dreams, but she is not the only one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Ocean, An Island

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers within! Read at your own risk.

= = = = = = = REY = = = = = = =

She dreams of an ocean, though she's never seen one with her waking eyes. She knows that's what it is, though-- great rolling sweeps of water replacing the dunes of her everyday existence, washing away the grit and grind of loneliness and survival. There's an island there, rising green above the mist and splash like the wreckage of a great starliner. A welcoming light shines from the top and outlines a figure on the edge of the cliff, waiting, waving.

She has never been there, but she knows in her bones that it's home.

= = = = = = = LEIA = = = = = = = =

She dreams of an island, and an ocean that feels familiar even though the waves are so much darker than the sweetwater lake that surrounded the shores of Aldera. She feels that same bittersweetness that she gets from the dreams she still has of Alderaan--comfort, loss, love, and guilt in equal measure. She does not even need to be asleep to see it, sometimes. Regrets are like that.

She has no time for regrets; her family has splintered, each of the men in her life cracking under the pressures of their choices, giving up, going away. Only the fight remains: the Resistance, the First Order, the strain of supporting the slowly growing Republic. They may be gone, but she's still standing. She has no time for Force echoes of a home she'll never have again.

= = = = = = = R2-D2 = = = = = = =

In low-power-mode, he spins the data endlessly, a sea of bio-signals surrounding his one essential data-point. He has served many masters, and been loyal in his way to each of them, but only one has shown him equal loyalty. Even now, R2 in his silence retains faith in Master Luke. He has gone, but he trusted R2 with the way to find him, when the time comes to call him back again.

Meanwhile, R2-D2 will keep scanning for the one who will carry him home.

= = = = = = = HAN = = = = = = = =

He falls, and his vision narrows to the face of his son, then expands again, the darkness clearing even as the light recedes above him. He sees Leia, the bright solid strength of her overlaid but undimmed by the sorrows they've shared. She stands like a rock in the waves of activity around her, and behind her rises a craggy outcrop, where a bearded, hooded figure glows.

It feels as if Han's falling towards the island, and his eyes widen when he recognizes his old friend beneath the old man's beard. Is Luke, too, one with the Force now? Surely not.

A slight smile, a tilt of the head, so familiar and so long absent--Han knows he's hallucinating in his final moments as Luke reaches out his hand, but then all is light, and warmth, and home.

= = = = = = = LUKE = = = = = = =

In his dreams, the wind over the water transmutes into the roar of the krayt dragons from the desert of his youth, and he wakes to the feel of old Ben's hand on his forehead, calling him back to the land of the living.

He is not ready to return to the land of the living.

Below him, the ocean teems with as much life as Yoda's swamps of Dagobah, but the gray and heaving surface is as desolate as Obi-Wan's hermitage on the edge of the Jundland Wastes. Luke has been keeping company with their ghosts as he deals with his own sorrows, understanding the terrible sense of responsibility that burdened both his teachers, trying to find his way to rebuild the Jedi without unleashing another Palpatine on a struggling galaxy.

He has already failed his first students, unable to stop the rise of Vader's heir. Luke's grief, freshly renewed, outweighs his anger at young Ben, so lost and unsure of himself, unable to find peace even among those who loved him, who lived in the light of the Force.

Next time -- and there will be a next time, Luke knows, for the living are not done with him yet-- he will do better. Once he failed to raise an X-wing from a marsh and gave up; not anymore. His retreat will soon be solitary no longer: the Force is calling him home.

= = = = = = = REY = = = = = = =

The water heaves below her like the breath of a great beast, and Rey's own breath stops in her chest as she follows the tug behind her breastbone, guides the _Falcon_ to its rest at the foot of the rocky green promontory. The smell of it, the sound--this place is exactly as she had imagined it, and she begins to wonder if she'd imagined it at all. All through the long skipping flight, hopping from point to point, recalculating lightspeed entries, sweet-talking the hyperdrive--all of it has felt familiar, as if she'd known where she needed to go even without the map that R2-D2 projected like blanket over them all.

Perhaps she did. Perhaps she does, because she climbs without hesitation and without fear. She should be afraid; half the galaxy doesn't believe in Luke Skywalker and the other half is in semi-permanent awe of him. All Rey knows is that every stony step takes her closer to what she's been hoping for, and when the lone man in the washed-slate cloak turns to meet her, she sees home in his ocean-blue eyes.


End file.
